Italian channel battles for carriage
Source : Cablecaster
December 23, 2003
TORONTO - The Italian Canadian community has been abuzz with talk of television this year as Italian government broadcaster RAI International has asked to be added to the eligible satellite list for digital only distribution in Canada.
Corus Entertainment-controlled Telelatino has strenuously objected, saying it already serves the Italian Canadian community and that CRTC guidelines protecting the genres of established Canadian specialties should apply here.
It's been a pitched battle. RAI walked away from a partnership with Telelatino which held a category two digi-net license, RAI Canada, in order to apply for carriage on its own, as a foreign service.
Accusations have flown back and forth all summer and fall in the Italian and mainstream press. Programming has been yanked and a lawsuit is now threatened. A 100,000-name petition has been submitted to government and a rally (which organizers say drew 1,000 people) at the CRTC's Hull headquarters was held in support of RAI. This is all in advance of a decision - stemming from summer applications for new foreign services - which has yet to be issued but is expected early in the new year.
Added to this is the fact that Italian expatriates can now vote their own representative into the Italian parliament - leading the government and politicians there to want to get their message out as much and in as many ways as possible. "I don't know of any other country that does this in the world but Italy," said Rogers Communications vice-chair Phil Lind. "They really have to get their messages through. They can't be interrupted by commercials or cut short all the time," he added, alluding to Telelatino's airing of RAI programming.
Another issue is the fact that the channel is readily available to illegal U.S. Dish Network users in Canada. "Lots of people in the Italian community are signing up to the Dish Network because that's what brings them RAI International," said Lind. "So, we're kind of exercised about that. We think that we should be able to deliver it."
When it all boils down, other countries already broadcast here, so why not Italy? "Germany is carried (Deutsche Welle), Britain is carried (BBC World), United States is carried, why wouldn't Italy be carried?" asked Lind in an interview with www.cablecastermagazine.com last Friday. Rogers sponsored the RAI application to the Commission.
"The issue is whether or not the CRTC is going to support the Canadian broadcast system. Under CRTC policy, it's clear, Canadian broadcasters come first," Telelatino president Aldo Di Felice told www.cablecastermagazine.com in response.
Not so fast, says Lind. Telelatino's programming is not all Italian all the time (there is some in English and some in Spanish), meaning there is enough room for RAI and Telelatino.
While RAI is still willing to sell programming to Telelatino, the Italian channel has grown unhappy with the way the Canadian channel has presented some of its shows. "For example, their newscasts, which they're very persnickety about and they insist as an absolute matter of faith that it be carried in total, was chopped up routinely by Telelatino - and things that were important, like speeches by political people in Italy were deemed to be less important than the pizza commercial or whatever it was constantly interrupting these things," said Lind. "This was a sore point for RAI."
Di Felice disputes that, saying "we broadcast their news commercial-free. We do not insert commercials within the newscast."
He also called Lind's assertion that Italians are turning to illegal dishes a "red herring" since any doing so would make up a very small percentage of the estimated 750,000 to one million Canadians using an illegal foreign dish.
While RAI International wants carriage here on its own, it also wants to keep some shows on Telelatino - but under a new contract. After 20 years of having its programming aired on Telelatino - and upwards of 90% of Telelatino's prime time schedule is from RAI - the Italian channel recently pulled the plug, saying its programming agreements expired at the end of August and that Telelatino could no longer carry its shows.
Telelatino has continued to carry some programming however, and RAI has now threatened to sue. Di Felice says that RAI did not negotiate and that its last offer demanded price increases of 900% per hour, rising to 1200% over the life of the proposed deal, while denying access to certain popular dramas, special events, sports and news shows, which would remain exclusive to RAI International.
Plus, he adds, from his point of view, the existing deal is still in place. "We dispute their ability to unilaterally terminate the supply contract with Telelatino in the manner which they have purported to do," says di Felice.
According to Lind, though, this part of the dispute is just business, a skirmish between RAI and Telelatino and meaningless in the context of the Commission. RAI, the content owner, wants to be paid more for its programming and wants to see it aired on Telelatino a certain way. This has nothing to do with the regulator and everything to do with the courts, soon. "From (September 1st) on, Telelatino is on very slippery ice because they're running programs the program owner says they don't have the right to run and they're going to be sued," he said. A lawsuit is "imminent" said Lind.
Telelatino's Di Felice, on the other hand, says it has everything to do with the Commission as RAI has pulled or threatened to pull its popular programming out of the market, creating an artificial worry for viewers. "You can't create a vacuum and then point to it and say there's a need," he said. "The foreign broadcaster has walked away from a deal to launch a Canadian digital channel and is trying to walk away from a long standing deal to supply Telelatino with the programming that has made both of us successful in Canada. It would not be appropriate to allow them to do that and to benefit from that with no contribution to the system and basically reducing the availability of Italian programming in Canada (by moving it to digital). Our viewership will be very disappointed if they start to see their programming disappear from our analog cable channel and we don't think the CRTC should support that."
"I think there is a solution here for everybody but Telelatino seems not to pick up on it," concluded Lind, "which is, I think RAI will continue to offer certain programming to Telelatino. Telelatino has already picked up other kinds of (Italian) programming from others. So, it can go out and pick and choose what it wants, it just doesn't want RAI to do the same thing."
© Cablecaster Magazine
Corus Entertainment-controlled Telelatino has strenuously objected, saying it already serves the Italian Canadian community and that CRTC guidelines protecting the genres of established Canadian specialties should apply here.
It's been a pitched battle. RAI walked away from a partnership with Telelatino which held a category two digi-net license, RAI Canada, in order to apply for carriage on its own, as a foreign service.
Accusations have flown back and forth all summer and fall in the Italian and mainstream press. Programming has been yanked and a lawsuit is now threatened. A 100,000-name petition has been submitted to government and a rally (which organizers say drew 1,000 people) at the CRTC's Hull headquarters was held in support of RAI. This is all in advance of a decision - stemming from summer applications for new foreign services - which has yet to be issued but is expected early in the new year.
Added to this is the fact that Italian expatriates can now vote their own representative into the Italian parliament - leading the government and politicians there to want to get their message out as much and in as many ways as possible. "I don't know of any other country that does this in the world but Italy," said Rogers Communications vice-chair Phil Lind. "They really have to get their messages through. They can't be interrupted by commercials or cut short all the time," he added, alluding to Telelatino's airing of RAI programming.
Another issue is the fact that the channel is readily available to illegal U.S. Dish Network users in Canada. "Lots of people in the Italian community are signing up to the Dish Network because that's what brings them RAI International," said Lind. "So, we're kind of exercised about that. We think that we should be able to deliver it."
When it all boils down, other countries already broadcast here, so why not Italy? "Germany is carried (Deutsche Welle), Britain is carried (BBC World), United States is carried, why wouldn't Italy be carried?" asked Lind in an interview with www.cablecastermagazine.com last Friday. Rogers sponsored the RAI application to the Commission.
"The issue is whether or not the CRTC is going to support the Canadian broadcast system. Under CRTC policy, it's clear, Canadian broadcasters come first," Telelatino president Aldo Di Felice told www.cablecastermagazine.com in response.
Not so fast, says Lind. Telelatino's programming is not all Italian all the time (there is some in English and some in Spanish), meaning there is enough room for RAI and Telelatino.
While RAI is still willing to sell programming to Telelatino, the Italian channel has grown unhappy with the way the Canadian channel has presented some of its shows. "For example, their newscasts, which they're very persnickety about and they insist as an absolute matter of faith that it be carried in total, was chopped up routinely by Telelatino - and things that were important, like speeches by political people in Italy were deemed to be less important than the pizza commercial or whatever it was constantly interrupting these things," said Lind. "This was a sore point for RAI."
Di Felice disputes that, saying "we broadcast their news commercial-free. We do not insert commercials within the newscast."
He also called Lind's assertion that Italians are turning to illegal dishes a "red herring" since any doing so would make up a very small percentage of the estimated 750,000 to one million Canadians using an illegal foreign dish.
While RAI International wants carriage here on its own, it also wants to keep some shows on Telelatino - but under a new contract. After 20 years of having its programming aired on Telelatino - and upwards of 90% of Telelatino's prime time schedule is from RAI - the Italian channel recently pulled the plug, saying its programming agreements expired at the end of August and that Telelatino could no longer carry its shows.
Telelatino has continued to carry some programming however, and RAI has now threatened to sue. Di Felice says that RAI did not negotiate and that its last offer demanded price increases of 900% per hour, rising to 1200% over the life of the proposed deal, while denying access to certain popular dramas, special events, sports and news shows, which would remain exclusive to RAI International.
Plus, he adds, from his point of view, the existing deal is still in place. "We dispute their ability to unilaterally terminate the supply contract with Telelatino in the manner which they have purported to do," says di Felice.
According to Lind, though, this part of the dispute is just business, a skirmish between RAI and Telelatino and meaningless in the context of the Commission. RAI, the content owner, wants to be paid more for its programming and wants to see it aired on Telelatino a certain way. This has nothing to do with the regulator and everything to do with the courts, soon. "From (September 1st) on, Telelatino is on very slippery ice because they're running programs the program owner says they don't have the right to run and they're going to be sued," he said. A lawsuit is "imminent" said Lind.
Telelatino's Di Felice, on the other hand, says it has everything to do with the Commission as RAI has pulled or threatened to pull its popular programming out of the market, creating an artificial worry for viewers. "You can't create a vacuum and then point to it and say there's a need," he said. "The foreign broadcaster has walked away from a deal to launch a Canadian digital channel and is trying to walk away from a long standing deal to supply Telelatino with the programming that has made both of us successful in Canada. It would not be appropriate to allow them to do that and to benefit from that with no contribution to the system and basically reducing the availability of Italian programming in Canada (by moving it to digital). Our viewership will be very disappointed if they start to see their programming disappear from our analog cable channel and we don't think the CRTC should support that."
"I think there is a solution here for everybody but Telelatino seems not to pick up on it," concluded Lind, "which is, I think RAI will continue to offer certain programming to Telelatino. Telelatino has already picked up other kinds of (Italian) programming from others. So, it can go out and pick and choose what it wants, it just doesn't want RAI to do the same thing."
© Cablecaster Magazine
